Despite getting to bed late last night (or early this morning, rather), we both slept pretty well and were mostly refreshed and ready to meet our friends David, Christie, and Ezra for breakfast, as they are also visiting Switzerland for the women’s Euros. We enjoyed a nice breakfast with them at a cafe near our hotel and then strolled around Bern for a while before they needed to catch their train to their next destination. There were some rain showers in the Bern area this morning and we had the most perfect timing, managing to stay dry in the cafe while we ate our breakfast and finishing up our morning tour just before the next shower started.

Chuck and I returned to the hotel to finish packing and then, after the rain let up, took just one more final tour of Bern so that we could see the renowned zytglogge (similar to a glockenspiel, a mechanical animated clock tower) ring in the hour. My favorite part was the rooster crowing. Apparently Swiss roosters say “kee-kee-ree-kee” instead of “cockle-doodle-doo”. After our tour, we picked up our luggage at the hotel and headed for the train station to begin our multi-phase journey to Gimmelwald, which consisted of two trains, a bus, and a cable car. The second train and the bus were both quite crowded and a little hectic, so we were relieved to arrive at our bed and breakfast and find it to be as peaceful and serene as it appeared on the Rick Steves special.

Our bed and breakfast host gave us a tour of the house and some suggestions for an afternoon hike, so we quickly geared up and headed back to the lift station to catch the lift to Murren and then the funicular to Allmendhubel to start our hike. The hike description on the map we were given promised that the route would not present a challenge to anyone with appropriate footwear. Rick Steves’ description disagreed slightly, warning us that there would be one challenging stretch while the rest would be relatively easy. After our somewhat strenuous hike earlier in the week, I was a little nervous that we might end up with more of challenge than we bargained for, especially when the easy, level trail changed into a pretty steep ascent somewhere around a half hour into the hike. But luckily it leveled back out, which was fortunate because halfway through our hike, we got confirmation that our request for dinner reservations at one of two restaurants in Gimmelwald had been accepted and we needed to rush back to make it on time.

We made it to the cable car in Murren just in time to get back to our bed and breakfast in Gimmelwald for a quick change before heading to the restaurant. Unfortunately, a rain shower came through just as we needed to leave for dinner and, though we had rain jackets to keep our top halves dry, we were both soaked through on the bottom halves by the time we got to the restaurant. The dark beer helped me forget about my soggy socks for a while and the set menu consisted of good comfort food to replenish us after our hike. We called it an early night after dinner and headed back to the B&B for the night.

Today’s Highlights

• Breakfast with David, Christie, and Ezra
• Swiss roosters singing “kee-kee-ree-kee”
• A peaceful B&B in a serene little village
• Beautiful scenery on our hike
• A comical sign warning us not to hug the cows as we passed through their pasture on our hike
• Good comfort food

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventure

• More exploring around the Berner Oberland